1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information processing apparatus for executing a process for middle binding booklet printing by a printing apparatus which can perform the middle binding booklet printing, a control method for the information processing apparatus, a control program, and a print system comprising the printing apparatus and the information processing apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, a print system comprising a printer (printing apparatus) and clients (information processing apparatuses) such as personal computers or the like has been well known. In the case of performing middle binding booklet printing in such a conventional print system, jobs formed on the clients are subjected to the middle binding booklet printing by changing page order by a printer driver or jobs from a head page sent from the printer driver are subjected to the middle binding booklet printing by changing the page order on the printer side. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,931 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-99724) filed by the present applicant, a print layout apparatus in which a blank from a portion of a folding line which is formed when a sheet of paper is folded double to a printing range can be set as a binding margin has been disclosed.
According to such a print layout apparatus, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 of the above Official Gazette, the blank portion serving as a binding margin upon booklet printing can be manually set.
However, upon setting of the binding margin (blank) in the print system including such a print layout apparatus, only similar setting can be made to all pages of a print job for performing the booklet printing both on the printer side and on the printer driver side. Since the blank portion is manually set, very complicated work is compelled to the user.
If the middle binding booklet printing is executed, the inside paper overflows the outside paper (the side serving as an obverse sheet/reverse sheet) with an increase in the number of sheets which are necessary for booklet printing. That is, edge portions of the sheet become a stairway-like shape. In such a case, the edge portions are trimmed in order to make a resultant book more attractive. However, a trimming range of the sheet on the inner side increases more. If printing areas of all sheets are the same range, that is, when the binding margins of all of the sheets are the same, if the trimming is performed, the printing area of the sheet on the inner side is one-sided to the edge portion. There is also a case where the range including the print area is trimmed.
A width of folding line which is obtained when a sheet of paper is folded changes in dependence on a thickness or rigidity of the sheet to be printed. That is, the binding margin has to be taken into consideration in dependence on not only the number of sheets but also the thickness or rigidity of the sheet.
Particularly, in the case of printing a pamphlet or the like, a plurality of types of sheets of different thicknesses are often used upon printing of one copy. In such a case, there is a problem such that even if the blank is manually adjusted by the above print layout apparatus, since the blank cannot be designated every page, if it is adjusted to a blank amount which is necessary in a thick sheet, a blank amount of a thin sheet increases more than it is necessary.
Further, in the above print layout apparatus, since the blank amount is manually adjusted, it is necessary to execute test printing many times in order to obtain a desired binding margin, so that there is a case where the sheets are consumed in vain.